When the Angels Sing
by silentmaid
Summary: Have you ever wondered about who Orthallen really is, or about the rest of Kris's family? Well here's my take on it! a little adventure, a little romance, follow the life of Lady Elaina and her really funny and adorable children.
1. Talen Reach

Well, ladies and gents – the silent maid brings you the first of many stories that seemingly take forever to get on paper. The legend herself – M. Lackey requested some fan fiction in where Herald Kris lives, well here is my first crack at it. It is no way even close to being in fine form, but here's the first draft. The timeline uhhh before Arrow's of the Queen till about say the Winds books -- depends on how long it goes. And the muse well is a little fairy named Dee who has quiet an interest in white horses that talk. This was written to the songs of Social D and Johnny Cash– silent maid

By the way I take only credit for the plot line, Elaine, her kids and a few other random people. Not for any creation of Mercedes Lackey (hereafter referred to as the Genius)

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**When the Angels Sing**

_At last we meet again, dear God  
Hear the angels sing  
The funerals are nicer when we know you're there  
When the angels sing  
Sometimes  
I try so hard  
To understand  
The things you do  
I like to question you  
When it all comes down  
Hear the angels sing  
Stand up strong  
Feel the pain  
When the angels sing  
Love  
And death  
Don't mean a thing  
Till the angels sing  
- When the Angels Sing by Social Distortion_

Chapter One: Talen Reach

Elaina Longarden breathed in a deep breath and faced the maid at her shoulder.

"Yes, Dressa."

"Lord Talen is asking for you, Milady."

The lithe maid curtsied, eyes pined to the ground.

Elaina braced her white fingers on the wood pew in front of her and straightened to her full height.

Her slippered feet slapped against the stones of Talen Reach, she pried the door to Talen's chambers with aching fingers not wanting to see what lay inside. But before she could bolt, a deep, scratched voice full of pain resonated within.

"Elaina, is that you?"

"Yes, sir." She answered softly drifting to the large bed in the center of the dusty, dark room.

Lord Talen was no longer the handsome, young man he'd once been. His skin had wrinkled and withered, pasted to his cheekbones witch stuck out at odd, sharp angles no longer supple as they had been in youth. He looked small, overpowered by the bed. His hair was stark grey in contrast to the brown he'd had just months ago. The illness had come three weeks prior and no healer had been able to tell what it was. And now Elaina sat at the bottom of her dying husband's bed, not knowing what to do. They had been married nigh on ten years, had three surviving children together and Elaine was more than a little scared. He wasn't the nicest husband, his temper especially when drunk was legendary but she had been married to the man when she was twelve, and with his death a whole new world was open to her, one she had no idea about on that was unpredictable and she was only a woman with 3 kids. Talen would leave enough money and land to them to live comfortably but the protection he offered as a man, and the respect he commanded would be gone.

She pulled a chair next to the bed placing her hands in his on the coverlet.

"Talen, don't you want to see the boys?" She suggested; he hadn't seen his children in weeks.

"No just you Elaina," he breathed through the pain.

Elaina felt her stomach drop in sadness. No matter what he did in his life, and he'd done some pretty horrible things, he didn't deserve three weeks of this. One of his pasty white, boney hands tangled itself in her ebony hair and a small tear formed behind a jade eye as she stifled a sniff.

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"Momma," the small voice broke her concentration on her needlework. She smiled, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears, on her eldest son Nikolas, his light brown hair tousled from playing out in the elements.

"Yes, love." She padded the spare next to her in the large chair she occupied.

He scooted next to her laying his head in her lap and her hand went automatically to thread through his hair. Placing her needlework aside Elaina looked down at the child in her lap.

"Daddy's not gonna make it."

The statement was blunt, without emotion which was not that unexpected. Nikolas was the oldest of the children at the age of 7 and thus had taken the brunt of their father's tirades.

"No love, I don't think so." Stinging tears dribbled down her cheeks and a small hand reached to brush them away, "Don't cry, Momma, please don't cry."

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The black cloth felt sticky, clammy and unnatural to wear. Elaina used every ounce of courage she had to hold back the tears that were threatening to cascade from her cast down eyes. The funeral was over and that left Elaina and her three children standing in front of Lord Talen's newly covered grave. Nikolas and her littlest Karrelyn squeezed her hand earnestly. Quiet Jess had wrapped himself in her skirts, his placid face void of any emotion, (unlike Nikolas' hatred or Karrie's tears).

"Come on loves, we have our lives to get on with."

What lives they might be, Elaina could hardly fathom at. With that troublesome thought, a warning came forth from the old Witch-mother in Sorrow's Rest (Elaina's home village – she'd only been a merchant's daughter when she was married to Talen).

_'Your biggest fear is of the shadows, deep in the heart of the land_

_Where demons creep that only you can understand_

_The life you hold be torn away; if not these demons held at bay_

_For they will kill and they will reap; the lives of those too young to weep_

_For joy and sorrow; the one who feels wont the 'morrow'_

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**Wow I can't believe I actually rhymed something, whoooooooo go me!!!!! Last time I attempted anything that resembles poetry it came out as childish sloppy free verse……may the muse be with you…and you…and you…:)****silentmaid**


	2. Life in Black

_Oh god, am I so sorry, I am very very late in getting this posted. The next chapters will not take me that long. this chapter might be extended but im not sure. silentmaid_

Chapter Two: Life in Black

The prisoners pray when they're on to death row  
When the angels sing  
The junky  
Cries for love but it's all run out  
When the angels sing  
The sins  
Of the world  
And it's cold on the streets  
And you're all alone  
And the tears  
They start to fall  
When it all comes down  
Hear the angels sing  
Stand up strong  
Feel the pain  
When the angels sing  
Love  
And death  
Don't mean a thing  
Till the angels sing  
Little  
By little  
Day by day  
I watch the children play  
Cause life  
And death  
Don't mean a thing  
Till the angels sing

- When the Angels Sing by Social Distortion

As the months passed where black constricted life at Talen Reach, Elaina found small joys in the fact that she Elaina Longarden-Talen could hibernate in the mountains of her home with just her children and the few of the staff she'd kept on. After the first week of condolences, they had left her alone and Elaina relished the freedom, although she still wore black. It was nearing four months after Talen's death when a letter from Queen Seleney herself graced her doorstep.

It was a short letter containing sympathy for the deceased and hope that Elaina and her children might return to Haven, as Elaina had sat on her council in those first tumult years after Sendar died in place of Talen who had quietly remained at home, away from the public eye in his aging state. Elaina considered it, she had enjoyed the city, the times Talen brought her and then later her and the children. But right now, she felt small almost nonexistent and she wanted it that way. She was a newly widowed woman barely out of her teens and the plush of people scared her. She had Talen before, now nothing between her and the real world. And for a while she would like to stay hidden away from the stares, the condolences, and the fretting courtiers.

She looked around the small solar, to the musician's rack, the small library shelves and to the divan that lazed by the large windows. People were so easy with sympathy and pity, and it angered her just a little that they felt she wasn't strong enough and needed their petty words, but in essence they were right, she wasn't.

Months had passed and Elaina had shed the black for more practical colors, when the first visitor appeared at Talen Reach, in the farthest northern reaches of Valdemar.

"Lady…" Dessa called from the doorway of the study, "Lord Orthallen is her and he wishes and audience with your ladyship."

Elaina brushed a length of black hair back behind her ear, placed her book and went to welcome Lord Orthallen.

He struck her as a very immaculate man, his hair graying slightly at the sides.

Dark eyes peered from a craggily face and he carried himself with an inner boastfulness.

"Milady, tis a pleasure."

He took her hand and kissed it, bowing as he did so.

"You are doing well here."

"Yes, sir. Please, please sit down. May I ask what brings you to Talen Reach at this time of year?"

Lord Orthallan lowered himself into the couch by the window, and Elaina pulled up a chair from her desk.

"I was a friend of your husband; we served together on Valdemar's council. Does this bother you?"

"No." She leveled with the man's eyes to show that she wasn't a grieving widow anymore; she had played that part long enough.

Orthallan just nodded his head, and continued.

"We did some business together during the war, and I was under the impression that he kept all the records. I want to get my hands on them, if its possible."

_Why is he coming to me then?_ Elaina thought.

"Why didn't you talk to Kelmis, he takes care of the inventory and expenditures, it would be far easier if you went to him, I wouldn't even know where to look."

"Ah yes, Kelmis, well I was hoping I could get them with your permission."

"Of course, they are your records as well. I shall get them for you then."

"Thank you, Milady I appreciate it, maybe I could retrieve them tomorrow?"

"Well I'll have them for you then."

"Good day, Milady."

"Good day to you to sir."

Lord Orthallan looked across his tea cup watching the steam rise up in billowy wisps, curling and spreading its rosemary aroma.

He looked down at the balance sheet and the letter beside it.

Smiling he picked up the pen, _Today is a good day_.


End file.
